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Every day, thousands of cargo containers from around the world pass through our nation's sea ports carrying items we need, and possibly some that are not so welcome: drugs, explosives, chemical, biological, or radiological weapons – even human cargo.

The possible concealment of such items in containers led lawmakers to call for the screening of all ocean cargo containers—thousands per port per day. The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is charged with the critical task of securing the country from terrorists and their weapons while facilitating legitimate trade and travel, including the monitoring of what's in thousands of sea cargo containers as they pass through CBP screening. These containers must be inspected quickly and accurately, and without the business at each port grinding to a halt when they do so.

Legendary chef Norman Van Aken is known internationally as “the founding father of New World Cuisine”; a celebration of Latin, Caribbean, Asian, African and American flavors. He also is the person who brought the term “Fusion Cooking” to the planet in a speech he delivered in Santa Fe in 1988.

He is the only Floridian inducted into the prestigious “James Beard list of ‘Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America”. He is the winner of the James Beard Award, ‘Best Chef in the Southeast’. The New York Times deemed “Norman’s”, “the Best Restaurant in Florida and Norman Van Aken its best Chef”. The Beard Foundation nominated “Norman’s” as “The Best Restaurant in America. He has been hailed as a “culinary genius” by Johnson and Wales University and given an honorary doctorate.

In 2006 he was honored as one of the “Founders of the New American Cuisine,” alongside Al…

A quarter-century on, Douglas Rodriguez’s fusion fervor has given way to a focus on ingredients — and a disdain for ‘molecular’ cooking

Chef Douglas Rodriguez is photographed on the Biscayne Lady where his "Brunch at Sea" a South Beach Wine and Food Festival event was held on Sunday. CARL JUSTE / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

BY LIZ BALMASEDAPALM BEACH POST

When I first met chef Douglas Rodríguez, he was doing improv at a Lincoln Road spot called the Wet Paint Café. Of course, instead of making jokes he made yuca, and instead of serving up punch lines he served up plantains. Gussied-up yuca and plantains, that is.

This was 1988, and the 20-something Cuban-American kid with a culinary degree from Johnson & Wales in Providence, R.I., was concocting some crazy dishes for the day, pairing ingredients foreign to the Cuban vernacular.

Green plantain linguini with bacon-sherry-shallot cream sauce? If you closed your eyes, you might find it tasted as comforting an…

Show-goers plan to don movie star garb during the show’s March 2 opening gala party and exhibitors should design their booths with Hollywood themes. Other than that, show visitors should expect to see some small changes that sponsors hope could increase interaction between grower-shippers and produce buyers.

The March 3 expo features more exhibitors and 90 minutes of additional expo floor time. The council inc…